About KellySays.com

This website exists to reach those who can benefit from its message: how to live a healthier, more vibrant life naturally. Within the pages of Kelly Says, I intend to discuss everything from holistic nutrition to exercise and fitness to mind-body healing and beyond. My hope is that you will join me in exploring more conscious ways of living and discovering what works, what inspires and what spreads awareness.

My background…

Personally, I first became conscious of a holistic, mindful diet and lifestyle when I was at my sickest and felt my worst. For years, I had been on a quest to feel good in my own skin, to wake up energized and plow through my days with heroic fervor. While I enjoyed a wonderfully carefree childhood of pizza, sugar and soda (oh, my!), I began to feel sluggish, moody and downright depressed as I approached my teen years. My family knew very little about healthful living and what they did know they discounted, often citing my great-grandfather’s lard-laden recipes and smoking habits late into his 80′s. We were the perfect storm of the American household, from the microwave in the heart of our kitchen to the freezer full of convenient food stuffs.

I had a lot of false starts on my road to improving my health and regaining the spritely youth that had eluded me for years. It seemed no matter what I tried — vegetarianism, veganism, atkin’s, the paleo diet, you name it — I got sicker and felt worse. By my late teens, I was always sick with something. I was sleeping 12-15 hours a day, always feeling disoriented and “foggy,” and was developing random infections and afflictions every few weeks. I had family members in their 60’s that felt better than I did!

Finally, in 2004, my health hit rock bottom and I dragged myself to a doctor. Admittedly, I wasn’t expecting much; doctors of the past had often sent me home with a prescription and a bill. However, something was different this time and I really felt heard. The doctor I saw that day ordered specific bloodwork — not just because it was billable, but because he had a solid medical concept of what was happening to me. When the bloodwork came back, he concluded I had an intolerance to gluten (a protein found in wheat, rye and barley) and sent me for GI tests which confirmed his diagnosis: Celiac Disease.

Having had a front-row seat to my own intestinal biopsy, I was able to see firsthand how badly my small intestine had been damaged from years of unknowingly ingesting gluten. I marched home from the doctor’s office and raided my kitchen, swearing off gluten forever and cursing the not-so-blissful ignorance of my youth. There I was, leaning against the kitchen sink with nothing but a diagnosis and some stale blueberries. I just didn’t know what the next step was.

Armed with a name — Celiac! — and a web browser, I began reading … and reading … and reading. Soon, I enrolled in a California-based program to become a certified Nutritional Counselor and, later, also became a certified Holistic Health Practitioner. I began walking the talk and, gradually, the importance of good, solid nutrition became more than just rhetoric and came into focus as the very lifeline I needed.

Today, whether it’s the food that goes into my body or the lotions and potions that I slather on my skin, I am always well aware of ingredients and their effects on the human body. The difference this has made in my life– in my clarity of thought, my immune system, my emotional state– has been immeasurable. Wellness in body, mind and spirit is an ongoing journey for me and I am always learning, always integrating.

I have created this web space to share what has worked for me, to educate and uplift you in any capacity I can and, most importantly, to help you take the focus from “out there” to within. No matter what advice anyone ever gives you, I promise none will bring you home to health, peace and wholeness quite like the shift to your own internal wisdom will.

Allow me to serve as a liaison between yourself and your body, reconnecting you with your inner wisdom.

Who’s Kelly?

Kelly is a gluten-free gourmand, a nutritionista and a writer, in her own right. She lives and loves a holistic and spiritual lifestyle. You can read more about Kelly & Kelly Sayshere.